Crandall v. Southwest Florida Blood Bank, Inc.
| Decision Date | 25 January 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-00731,90-00731 |
| Citation | 16 Fla. L. Weekly 274,581 So.2d 593 |
| Parties | Marie CRANDALL, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Harry Crandall, Sr., Deceased, Appellant, v. SOUTHWEST FLORIDA BLOOD BANK, INC., a Florida non-profit corporation, Appellee. 581 So.2d 593, 16 Fla. L. Week. 274 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Arthur J. Ranson, III, of Giles, Hedrick & Robinson, P.A., Orlando, for appellant.
Ted R. Manry, III, of MacFarlane, Ferguson, Allison & Kelly, Tampa, for appellee.
Marie Crandall, as personal representative for the estate of her deceased husband, appeals a final summary judgment entered in favor of Southwest Florida Blood Bank, Inc. (the Blood Bank) and against the appellant upon her claim that her husband died of AIDS as a result of a transfusion of blood supplied by the Blood Bank. We reverse.
In April 1987, Harry Crandall, Sr., the appellant's husband, received during surgery ten units of blood obtained from the Blood Bank. Mr. Crandall died in January 1988. The autopsy report prepared by Dr. S.J. Agosti, M.D., and supervised by Dr. J.U. Balis, in part, stated:
This patient died from clinically unsuspected Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia related to HIV infection. The most probable means by which the patient was infected by HIV was from blood products received when he underwent a coronary artery bypass operation in 4/87.
Mr. Crandall's estate sought recovery against the Blood Bank on the theories of breach of implied warranty of merchantability, breach of implied warranty of fitness, and negligence. The Blood Bank filed a motion for summary judgment. In support of that motion, the Blood Bank filed the affidavit of German F. Leparc, M.D., Vice-President of Medical Affairs and Medical Director of the Blood Bank, the depositions of Drs. Agosti and Balis, and the affidavit of Ronald E. Domen, M.D., Chief of the Blood Bank at the hospital where the 1987 surgery on Mr. Crandall had been performed. Dr. Leparc's affidavit stated in part:
Each unit transmitted to the James A. Haley Veteran's Administration Hospital and reportedly transfused to Harry Crandall, Sr. was tested and found non-reactive for anti-HIV. A non-reactive test means that the donor has no evidence of past exposure to HIV.
. . . . .
[S]outhwest Florida Blood Bank has had occasion to further test the blood of each of the donors who donated the blood that was transfused to Mr. Crandall. These donors have been tested at various times.... Each ... have continued to test nonreactively for anti-HIV.... [t]hese tests and their results are conclusive evidence that Mr. Crandall did not contract acquired immune deficiency syndrome from blood units supplied by Southwest Florida Blood Bank and transfused to Mr. Crandall on or about April 29, 1987.
In his deposition, Dr. Agosti specifically stated that his autopsy report was based upon the information that he had at that time. However, when specifically asked to assume that every donor responsible for the blood transfused to Mr. Crandall in 1987 continued to be healthy and HIV negative, he stated that it would not be within reasonable medical probability that the blood was the source of the infection. Dr. Balis, a Board Certified Pathologist, testified that a follow-up test...
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